Personal

I'm an author, speaker, outdoorsman, and a certified computer geek, with the cutting-edge humor of Arnold Schwartznegger, the massive physique of Stephen Hawkings, and the keenly scientific mind of Dennis Miller...    No, wait, that was last night's nightmare... The first part is true, though, and I am certainly an incorrigible punster (I find incorrige-ment to pun everywhere!). My other claim to infamy is that I once voted twice in an election in 2006, but that's a long story.

Then again, I like long stories. As an author, I'm currently working on a fiction book called "The Ghost of Christmas Present". If you like books by Dean Koontz, you might enjoy this, as this has some of his flavor: good guy discovers unusual talent, fights bad guys with a sense of humor. Fewer dog scenes, though (Koontz fans will understand). Excerpts are available on the writings page.

I enjoy music, both in composition and performance. I sing bass in my church choir, and have performed as a lead and backup singer for a band, as well as enjoy creating music electronically. In fact, I'm working on a CD, expected to be released in 2057 posthumously. It may be available at music stores near you, if we still have music stores then. I also love working the FOH audio soundboard, making everyone up front sound even better.

I am also a licensed Amateur Radio operator (affectionately known as "hams") and operate under the call sign KB9PHA. While schedules and events have somewhat limited my activity, I have been frequently found helping out at local bike/walk/run/ride/etc events in the community. I am a member of two local ham radio clubs: the Milwaukee Repeater Club, and the Milwaukee Area Amateur Radio Society (MAARS), both of which operation local 2 meter repeaters covering Southeastern Wisconsin. I have also been active in the past in the Amateur Radio Emergency Service (ARES), a severe weather, disaster-, and emergency-recovery volunteer organization and hope to resume my support of that excellent organizations operations.

Career

In 1985, I founded the Sterling Technologies Group, Ltd., a programming firm that provides software development services to small- to mid-sized businesses. Our specialty is "Information Access Technologies", applications that provide information access to the people who need it, wherever they may be. Over the years, Sterling has attained various certifications including Microsoft Authorized, Novell Gold Certified, and Hewlett-Packard Authorized Service Center certifications. Since 1985, Sterling has had a minimum staff of one and a maximum of over thirty. At present, we're in "lean and focused" trim and I'd be happy to talk < salesman warning > about how our group can help bring the same focus and efficiency to your operation < /salesman warning > !

I am a SixSigma Black Belt in training, a person who uses a statistically aware problem solving methodology to reduce waste and variation in nearly any process, including software design. While it is often used in manufacturing settings to reduce cost due to production variations, I use it to try to minimize the "waste" in software development.

I am a multi-lingual coder, writing in these programming or script languages (in reverse chronological order): MetaTader4, PHP, ABAP, Perl, Javascript/ECMAScript, Java, SQL, Visual Basic/VBA/VBScript, C/C++/C#, Foxpro/xBase, NScript, RPG, Basic, Pascal, Assembler, and FORTRAN. There are others, but this list is already embarrasingly long enough. What I am truly proud of, however, is that I have had code snippets that have been well enough designed that they have followed me from language to language without redesign. I wrote Y2K compliant software in 1985 and firmly believe that we should create designs that are foresighted enough to prevent similar dead-ends. No back-patting: more a reminder that design requires foresight.

Learn more about me

• My Tertulia
• My writings
• LinkedIn
• Twitter

Current Projects (sites I've developing/writing)

• URL in 8: Short links for unspellable URL's


• Hillpoint Church: Ordinary people from all walks of life and ethnic backgrounds, empowered by an extraordinary God, coming together for the common purpose of completing The Great Commission.


• Mike's Movies: To know if I owned a movie, I created a mobile site

Availability

I am currently looking for a limited number of PHP, Perl, or Java application projects to work on during 2009. If you have an application you'd like to discuss, send me a message so we can talk further.

Non-Profits:As a personal philosophy, I believe we live in an closely interconnected world with an individual and corporate responsibility to improve the world around us. As a result, I reserve a number of hours each month for unbilled, volunteer-based projects for non-profit organizations. If you have a special need that would dramatically enhance your ability to improve your corner of the world, contact me to explain your project. If your project is selected, you may find your IT budget stretched this year. Check above for some of the current works.

Fun and Useful Tools

• Permanent Short URL Links


• Want to borrow a movie?


• Remote MySQL Browser

If you're looking for that file we just worked on, try here

• Perl version -- Simple anagram generator without dictionary scan


• PHP Version -- Simple anagram generator without dictionary scan


• Perl program to duplicate a folder structure


• Arnold Brownstein's Memorial service

Thought of Wisdom for a randomly selected period of time

Quoted from "The Message" by Eugene Peterson (related to Ecclesiastes 9:7 from the Bible)

Seize life! Eat bread with gusto,
Drink wine with a robust heart.
Oh yes—God takes pleasure in your pleasure!
Dress festively every morning.
Don't skimp on colors and scarves.
Relish life with the spouse you love
Each and every day of your precarious life.
Each day is God's gift. It's all you get in exchange
For the hard work of staying alive.
Make the most of each one!
Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily!
This is your last and only chance at it,
For there's neither work to do nor thoughts to think
In the company of the dead, where you're most certainly headed.